1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an information processing apparatus constructed in a manner such that, when it is connected to an external processing apparatus, control software corresponding to the connected external processing apparatus is installed.
2. Related Background Art
There is a printer driver as a preferable example of a control program for controlling various external processing apparatuses. The printer driver is software which is necessary to be installed into an OS in order to allow a printing apparatus such as a printer or the like as a preferred example of the external processing apparatus to execute a printing process from an application which operates on the OS. An installer for installing the printer driver into the OS implemented in a host computer has existed conventionally. A computer for obtaining a device ID as identification information peculiar to a device from the printing apparatus and installing the printer driver by using the device ID has been developed. Generally, since the printer driver is the software which differs for every apparatus, the operation to install it into the OS implemented into the host computer is troublesome.
Therefore, a function such that when the printing apparatus is connected to a system, the identification information showing information peculiar to the printing apparatus is obtained from the printing apparatus and the corresponding printer driver is installed (hereinafter, such a function is called a plug and play function), is added to the OS and usability for the user is improved. An installer corresponding to the plug and play which can easily install the plug and play as mentioned above (hereinafter, such an installer is called a plug and play installer) is provided. The plug and play installer is usually provided as a function of system software, for example, the operating system (OS).
In the plug and play installer, preparation is made so that the OS can recognize the information of the printer driver corresponding to the printing apparatus and, thereafter, in response to the operation for allowing the user to connect the printing apparatus, the device identification information is received from the device, the driver corresponding to the device identification information is specified, and the printer driver is installed.
Hitherto, since the development of the device driver has been made for every device, all modules in one device driver correspond to it. However, if a specific device driver is developed for a certain device as in the conventional manner, a developing period of time becomes long and a large burden is placed on a developer. In recent years, therefore, to reduce the number of developing steps, a countermeasure for dividing the device driver into a common module portion and a module portion peculiar to the device, thereby reducing the number of developing steps of the common module portion is taken. Therefore, in the development of the device driver corresponding to the specific device, it is sufficient to execute developing steps of the device peculiar module portion and the burden on the developer is reduced. In recent years, consequently, the device driver having a common module has become popular.
However, in the device driver having the common module, if the device driver is installed by the plug and play, the following problems occur. The plug and play installer specifies a control program to be installed on the basis of device IDs as identification information of various apparatuses such as an external processing apparatus and the like and installs the specified device driver as it is. Therefore, another existing control program is overwritten against an intent of the user. Since the common module of the device driver has been expanded more or less in accordance with an increase in line-up of the devices, if the overwriting process of the common module is executed, in the case where the device driver of the old version has already been installed in the system, there is a situation that a mismatch occurs in the software.